Fig. 3
Laser-sculptured carbide for solar-steam generation membrane. a Fabrication schematic of carbide membrane. Laser-induced carbide is dispersed in DI water, which is condensed to a flexible membrane by vacuum filtration. b Solar-steam generation using carbide membrane to harvest solar-thermal energy. c Evaporation rate and energy efficiency of carbide membrane under different incident solar power. d Temperature file of MoC1-x under extreme solar irradiation (11 sun, inset). XPS of MoC1-x Mo_3d orbital before and after 11 sun exposure for 1 h. e Simulated refractive index, dielectric constant, and absorption coefficient of MoC1-x by density functional theory. f SEM of laser structured porous MoCx with connected curved surface. g Transmission spectrum of 10 μm and 20 μm porous carbide thin films. Inset: simulated transmission curve of approximate carbide structure (inset) and simulated temperature profile in carbide unit cell. Incident light power Copt = 3 (3 kW m−2). h Simulated absorption of 500 nm incident light within a unit cell (1.6 μm) to illustrate the energy localization within the porous carbide structure. i Transmission intensity of different wavelengths in different approximate unit cell sizes
